400 Horsepower of the Apocalypse
Chapter 20
We rode hard across Arizona, trying to put some distance between us and Jasper before someone at Chain Gang called the police to report a break-in. We hadn’t exactly been thorough about covering our tracks — Leo may have been a professional criminal, but he was more of a strong-arm bandit than a cat burglar.
So despite the ludicrous amount of horsepower beneath us, Leo drove carefully and legally, and we kept watch every mile for Michael’s cops. I mean, we got passed by a minivan and that’s just sad.
But some of that might have been Leo… He hadn’t slept in forty-eight hours and when we stopped for an early lunch, Leo ordered three coffees. His eyes were bloodshot and rimmed in red, with dark circles under them. I was glad that he had eyes — even without Uriel’s feature-length apocalyptic dreams, Death’s empty sockets were the stuff of nightmares — but I still felt bad for Leo.
And I was damned tired, too. Last night had involved only a few hours of sleep and a lot of fixing a motorcycle that didn’t want to be fixed. We took our food down the winding road to a rest stop so that we could remain close to the Packmaster while we ate. I yawned into my hash browns and rubbed my eyes.
“Do you need some sleep?” Leo asked.
“Me? You’re the one on insomnia duty,” I said.
“More like not-killing-Jaz duty,” Leo countered. “And generally maintaining control of my body.”
“It’s a nice body.”
Leo blinked and I clapped a hand over my mouth. I hadn’t meant to say that out loud. But you know… tired.
“If you can stay awake,” I said quickly, “so can I.”
But Leo was shaking his head. “One of us has to be rested and alert, Jaz. Stopping Death from taking over and keeping the Packmaster from throwing a piston requires pretty much everything I have. There are still the other horsemen, archangels and those paramilitary whackjobs that shot up our motel room in… shit, I don’t even remember what town that was now.”
“Mmmm,” I said.
That was supposed to be something along the lines of Yeah, good point or It was Zamora Canyon, but I was too busy yawning again. We were sitting at a rest-stop concrete picnic table that had been abused by more than weather. Leo patted the bench with a smirk.
“Come on,” he offered. “Lay down and get a little sleep.”
“Okay, just give me five minutes,” I said.
I stretched out on the seat, but I didn’t keep my eyes closed for long. The concrete was hard and cracked, impossible to get comfortable on. Sleeping rough sucked.
“Try this,” Leo said.
He took off his jacket and I assumed he was going to fold it into some sort of cushion. The leather was old and well-worn, but I sat up and Leo slid down the bench toward me. When my head came down again, it was against Leo’s thigh, and he draped his jacket over me like a blanket.
Oh, wow… Leo’s muscles didn’t make for a very soft pillow, but I wouldn’t have traded for the best, most expensive mattress.
Your heart is pounding, Jaz. Are we preparing for battle? Uriel asked.
There’s more to life than fighting, I said. If you can forget about war for just a minute, you might learn about some of it.
Perhaps. But for now, Leo is correct. You require rest. Sleep and we will keep Death at bay.
I don’t know if Uriel was poking around in my brain for some of those non-battle nice things, or if sleeping with my head cradled in Leo’s lap set the tone for my dreams… But let’s just say that it was a nice reprieve from the nightmares of fighting four mounted demons with a sword made of razor-sharp light.
I slept for a lot longer than five minutes before Leo shook me gently awake. I sat up and wiped my mouth, checking for drool. If Leo noticed, he didn’t say anything. I really hoped I hadn’t said anything, either… I’ve never been particularly prone to talking in my sleep, but nothing in my life was normal right now.
You spoke no words while you slept, Uriel assured me.
Thank goodness, I thought. Wait, did I make any sounds?
“Ready to go?” Leo asked me.
I stretched and my spine popped as I looked around. Without my phone, I couldn’t have told you the time, but the sun had moved and I didn’t recognize any of the cars in the parking lot anymore. I wasn’t sure how much Leo had let me sleep, but it was long enough that I was glad the cops hadn’t picked us up for vagrancy. I felt a lot better and nodded at Leo.
“Let’s get back onto the road,” I said. “You still know where we’re going, right?”
“San Diego…” Leo answered with one eyebrow arched.
“I meant our route,” I said. “Since we’re not taking the highway anymore.”
Leo sighed and stifled a yawn against the back of his hand as he put his jacket on again.
“Oh, yeah. Sorry,” he said. “I think so, but maybe you should look over the maps so you can kick my ass onto track if I screw it up.”
We pulled out the maps and reviewed our route again. The Arizona maps didn’t cover the whole trip to California, but they would get us at least to the Nevada border.
“We can pick up another map there,” I said. “Or check on a computer.”
Leo nodded wearily and I followed him to the Packmaster. The motorcycle growled at his approach, but Leo snarled at it and put the maps back into the saddlebags.
We mounted up again and kept driving at careful, family-friendly speeds through a town called Whitburn, then Coconino National Forest. I was expecting endless deserts and taco stands — which shows just how badly I needed to get out of Crayhill — and was surprised at how many trees there were in the American southwest. The day was bright and hot, sunlight flickering through the overlapping green of leaves to paint wild golden mosaics across the road winding between them. It was beautiful, and all the more because it was so unexpected.
Unexpected locations lead to unexpected problems, Uriel pointed out.
And unexpected good stuff, too, I thought. You’ve never had a surprise party, have you?
No. The angel riffled around my thoughts for a moment. And neither have you.
But if I ever do, I’m going to love it.
I wasn’t sure if that confused Uriel or they just didn’t have an answer, but the archangel fell silent again. Leo drove us through Coconino National Forest, past trucks and RVs full of families on vacation. By that evening, we left the forest behind and rode toward the setting sun.
It wasn’t particularly late, but I felt the exhaustion trembling in Leo’s muscles and one yawn after another stretching his chest. He kept the Packmaster moving more or less steadily, though, until I pointed through the fading twilight to a road sign that promised gasoline, food and lodging. If I remembered our maps correctly, this might be our last chance to stop off for a while. Unless we wanted some rocks and pine cones for dinner, and I was pretty sure tree sap didn’t have the sort of caffeine content Leo needed right now.
“Let’s eat,” I shouted into his ear.
Leo gave me a brief thumbs-up and we turned at the next traffic light, then stopped in the parking lot of a hotel flanked by a nice-looking Chinese restaurant and a slightly less busy bar-grill combo. We parked outside the grill and Leo staggered as we went in. I grabbed his arm.
“Hey, are you okay?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Leo answered. “Just need some coffee.”
At least, I think that’s what he said. It was loud inside the grill and Leo was mumbling badly.
A host pointed us to a small table and Leo slumped down into his chair without even trying to put his back against a wall. He stared at the menu for five full minutes and when our server came by, I had to repeat Leo’s order for him. To be honest, it was mostly coffee with a grilled cheese sandwich chaser.
Luckily, the server seemed to sense the extent of the problem and hastily returned with a cup of coffee. It was still steaming hot, but Leo downed half the mug in a single gulp. He let out a long breath and rubbed his eyes.
Hey, was that you or the horsemen? I asked. Which one of you invented coffee?
None of us, Uriel answered. By agreement, the two sides created a physical universe in which our war could finally be won or lost. But how that universe evolved was shaped internally by its own forces and inhabitants.
I shook my head. You should have just taken credit.
“I’m alive, I swear,” Leo said. “This stuff is a miracle.”
A little of the light came back to his brown eyes, but the dark circles remained and I wasn’t entirely convinced. I drank down some water — it had been a long, hot day and I was thirsty, too — then cocked my head toward the nearest window and the Packmaster parked outside.
“You’re exhausted,” I told Leo.
“No argument here,” he said.
“Do you think there’s any chance you could bully your bike into letting me drive?”
Leo looked out the window as he finished his coffee. He had turned off the motorcycle headlight when we parked, but the filament glowed an angry, hellish red and seemed to be staring right at us.
“No,” Leo said. “Nobody else can drive my steed.”
“Especially some girl with an angel inside her.”
Leo nodded. “But even with all the time we lost yesterday, we should be able to roll into San Diego late tomorrow. I can make it one more day.”
One more day until answers and hopefully solutions from Uncle Carlos, until Leo could sleep and I could pry the angel out of my skull. I still wasn’t sure what that solution might involve and hoped it wouldn’t be something like a blessed white-hot ice pick through my ear.
What if it did, though? Would it be worth pain or maiming to get rid of Uriel?
You do not need to worry, Uriel told me.
Thanks, I thought. But then I frowned. Wait, why not?
Because I cannot be removed. I am a part of you, Jaz. You are my vessel.
Was that supposed to be reassuring? I was kind of touched, but Uriel’s words were disquieting, too. Would the angel fight whatever Carlos wanted to do? And what about the horseman inside Leo? Uriel was a force of light and order, but Death was… well, Death. I couldn’t imagine it just letting go of Leo.
Our food arrived, along with a second cup of coffee, and Leo was awake enough to thank the server this time. My pasta was good, but the cheese sauce made me thirsty and my water was gone. I searched around for our server. The grill was only about half full and I spotted him bussing another table. I wasn’t that thirsty… I could wait until he finished, so I returned my attention to dinner.
But I felt eyes on me and looked up again. It wasn’t the server noticing that I needed something… There was an older white lady a few tables away, maybe in her fifties or sixties. I wasn’t sure — I was shit at guessing people’s age. But her hair was gray and she watched us through a pair of black-rimmed glasses. As soon as she saw me looking, the woman turned away. But she had definitely been watching us.
“Hey, Leo,” I said quietly. “There’s a lady three tables back. The one with glasses.”
Leo finished his swallow of coffee and glanced over at the table I indicated, then nodded slightly toward the left shoulder of his leather jacket, where the embroidered rattlesnake coiled, ready to strike.
“Think it might be the snake patch?” Leo asked. “Sometimes people recognize it and get spooked.”
Yeah, I remembered. I had recognized that rattlesnake back in Crayhill and was certainly freaked out. Not that it stopped me from running off with a big, sexy biker. But…
“She doesn’t look scared,” I said.
The woman was studying her menu way too hard, and she seemed more curious than frightened. She looked up when our server approached her table. Whoever this lady was, she had arrived after us, apparently.
“Is she one of yours?” Leo asked me. “She’s not a horseman, as far as I can tell.”
Uriel? I asked. I didn’t feel anything like I had with Michael or Gabriel — and this close, the feeling would be pretty damned strong — but figured I better ask. Is that woman over there about to sprout wings?
She is not an angelic vessel, Uriel answered.
And if another archangel was sitting across a restaurant from us, I was sure Uriel would have control of my body, not me. But I picked up my fork and stuffed some more pasta into my mouth, just to be sure. Yeah, I was still running the show.
For now.
Uriel, will you help me keep an eye on that lady? I asked. If I look away, can you watch her?
I can use your senses, but I have others that you do not.
Uh… is that a yes?
Yes, the angel said.
Leo and I ate our dinner quickly. I watched the woman with the glasses from the corner of my eye — and it was clear she was doing the same thing with us — but Uriel didn’t alert me to anything fishy.
After about twenty minutes, the lady finished her salad and got up. She put some cash on the table, then left the restaurant. My heart finally slowed and Leo let out a sigh. He ordered some more coffee and I celebrated this small victory by adding a slice of cheesecake to the bill.
We lingered at the grill until we were certain that the woman at the other table was gone, and our server was starting to give us some stink-eye for taking so long.
“Let’s get a room,” I suggested.
“That sounded bad,” Leo said. “Or good. Maybe both.”
Even after all of that coffee, Leo was still tired and his smile was sleepy. It was no less charming, but the biker was dragging his feet and nearly dropped the money when he went to pay. Leo left a tip big enough to make our server smile again, though.
“Hotel room?” I asked.
“Yeah. Let’s grab one next door.”
We left the restaurant and headed across the parking lot toward the dark rectangular silhouette of the hotel. Leo tripped over the edge of the curb and I grabbed the sleeve of his leather jacket to steady him.
“Shit, sorry,” Leo said. “I guess coffee just isn’t doing the trick anymore. And I don’t know when I’ll be able to look an energy drink in the eye again.”
We made sure that the Packmaster was still where we left it — which it was, and it grumbled at Leo as we passed — and then headed to the hotel. We had the same problem as before with paying in cash, but enough cash seemed to take care of the issue and we were quickly heading up to the third story, the first available room that the clerk could find. It was another single king bed, but Leo said that was fine.
We took the elevator to our room, unlocked the door and Leo staggered inside. I followed him, then closed and locked up behind us. It was a simple, boring hotel room, with a lot of mint green and faded sky blue. But the bed looked comfortable and the shower was well-sized.
Leo headed straight for the sideboard that held the coffee maker. No minifridge or pop in here, but I had seen a couple of vending machines out in the hallway. Leo grabbed a foil packet of instant coffee, but it slipped through his fingers and bounced across the floor.
“Shit,” he sighed.
I picked up the coffee and replaced it on the counter. Leo ran one hand through his thick brown hair and shifted his weight between his feet a few times.
“How’re you doing?” I asked.
“Not great,” Leo admitted.
I approached carefully and held out my arms. He nodded and I circled them around him. Leo’s whole body was tight and trembling as I hugged him. A shuddering sigh ruffled my hair.
“I keep wondering if heroin would quiet Death down,” Leo said. “I’m not sure I could say no to a needle right now.”
A shudder wracked Leo and I held him tighter, as though I could physically stop the craving. Leo wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close. I heard his heart jackhammering in his chest.
“I don’t know how much longer I can do this, Jaz,” Leo said. “The coffee and energy drinks are barely keeping me awake anymore. What if I fall asleep? What if Death takes control…?”
Slowly, I reached up to run my fingers down Leo’s cheek. It was rough with stubble and the contact made Uriel jolt inside me. Leo jumped, too.
“Death doesn’t like that,” he growled.
I ran my fingers along Leo’s jaw and visions of heavenly fire burned through my brain, but I didn’t pull away.
“What about you?” I asked. “Do you like it?”
Leo’s eyes were so intense that I could feel them on my skin.
“Yes,” he said.
“There might be another way to keep you awake.”
“Jaz, you shouldn’t touch me,” Leo said. “It’s dangerous…”
He meant every word, I knew, but Leo’s hands didn’t get the message. They trailed up my arms and then slowly down my back. My head was full of bladed wings and flames, power and violence, but I closed my eyes and leaned into Leo. Maybe there was another way to shut those visions out, too…
I pulled Leo down into a kiss. He stiffened again and I swore that I could hear Death snarling inside him, but Leo put his arms around me, too. He lifted me effortlessly up off the ground and I wrapped my legs around his waist.
Not taking his lips from mine, Leo staggered toward the bed, but he couldn’t see and hadn’t slept in days. We hit the corner, overbalanced and fell together into the sheets. Fine by me — that’s where we were going, anyway. Leo came down on top of me, with every deliciously hard inch of his body pressed against mine.
I clutched the hem of Leo’s shirt and wondered how I was going to get it off without breaking the kiss. Would Leo mind if I just ripped it to shreds? He grabbed my hips and let out a deep, hungry growl. Somehow, I didn’t think he cared one bit about the shirt.
Someone knocked on the hotel room door. Who the hell was that? We weren’t even being noisy… yet. I sat up with a groan.
“What the fuck?” Leo asked.
His heart was still pounding so hard that I could hear it. Leo was wide awake now, but didn’t seem to have enough blood in his head to make complete sentences. I wasn’t much better and only managed some grumbled swearing as I went to the door to squint through the little glass peephole.
A woman waited in the hallway outside. She stood a few feet back from the door with her hands tucked into the pockets of neat gray slacks. I recognized her, but it took a moment for me to figure out why.
“Holy shit,” I whispered. “It’s that lady from the restaurant. Did she follow us?”
It would take a lot more than a few nights without sleep and a horny mechanic throwing herself at him to entirely dull Leo’s edge. He was on his feet in an instant and racking the slide of a gun that I hadn’t even seen him pick up.
“Do you sense something?” Leo asked as he hurried over.
“No, still nothing angelic,” I said. “Do you feel anything?”
“Other than pissed off?” Leo shook his head. “Nope. I mean, Death wants to kill her. But it wants to kill everyone, so that’s not exactly useful information.”
For a second there, I was shamefully tempted to let Death do precisely that. I was tired of being box-locked. The woman in the hallway checked her watch, then knocked at our door again. I jumped and Leo’s grip tightened on the gun.
“Now what?” I asked.
“Maybe she’ll leave,” Leo said.
“Jasmine O’Neil?” the woman called out. “Leopold Valdis?”
I blinked. How the hell did she know our names? I didn’t like it, and to judge by how Leo tensed, neither did he. Or maybe he just didn’t like being called Leopold.
The woman outside adjusted her glasses. “My name is Diane Owens. This conversation will be easier if I don’t need to shout through a door.”
The lady — Diane, apparently — had a point. I gestured to the chain latch and looked at Leo. He nodded slowly and stood to one side of the door. I hesitated, then moved over to the other side to stay out of the potential line of fire. When we were both in position, I unfastened the chain and turned back the deadbolt. Leo grabbed the knob and cracked the door open. Outside, Diane smiled.
“Much better, thank you,” she said. “Would it be pushing my luck to come in? You’ve gone to a lot of work to keep what you’re doing private, and I’d like to do the same.”
Leo glanced at me, and I shrugged. I had no idea what to do, but Diane didn’t seem to be either a horseman or an archangel. She wasn’t even very big. If something went wrong, Leo could get rid of this woman without breaking a sweat.
As could you, Uriel said. With my help, at least.
You would help me? I asked.
Of course.
I wasn’t sure if that was Uriel being my friend or just refusing to let some mortal get between them and the final battle. It had been another long day, so I figured that I would take any small victory where I could.
Leo opened up the door the rest of the way and then waved Diane through with his gun. Our visitor stepped inside and eyed the weapon.
“You don’t need that, I assure you,” Diane said. “And I know that you’re both capable of substantially more deadly force than a simple firearm.”
Leo pushed the door shut, but didn’t lower his gun.
“You were watching us at dinner. Who are you?” I asked.
“Well, I attended seminary, so you could call me Reverend Owens,” Diane answered. “But I also hold doctorates in astrophysics and history, so you could call me Doctor Owens. But if it’s all the same to you, I really prefer Diane.”
Her voice had a smooth non-accent I always associated with California. If she threw out a hella or dude, then I would be sure I was right.
“You already told us your name,” Leo said. “How the fuck do you know our names?”
Diane crossed the hotel room and raised delicate gray eyebrows in a wordless question. When Leo and I didn’t object, she sat down in one of the pale green chairs.
“There’s some history to that,” Diane said. “But the first part of it is because I’m the director of the southwestern division of the Society for the Protection and Observation of the Tellurian.”
“The what?” Leo asked.
I blinked a couple of times. There was a lot of information packed into that sentence. And answers, if we were lucky… But none of that was what came out of my mouth.
“So you’re… SPOT?” I asked.
Reverend-Doctor Diane Owens spread her hands. “Well, the Latin version provides a somewhat less embarrassing acronym, but… yes. Feel free to make fun. I’ve heard all the jokes by now.”
“I’m more interested in what that name actually means,” Leo said. “What are you after, lady?”
Diane sighed. “Well, you’ve already met some of my people, I’m afraid. Back in Zamora Canyon.”
“What?” I asked. I knew my voice was rising and didn’t care. “You mean those bastards in the riot gear? The ones who tried to shoot us with big-ass guns?”
“Yes,” Diane admitted. “To be fair, however, we had no idea that the hosts — you and Leopold, that is — were still in control of your bodies. We never even suspected that such resistance was possible. I promise you that killing a pair of more or less innocent humans was never our goal.”
“Don’t call me Leopold,” Leo said. “So what were you trying to do?”
“To deal with the entities inside you before they could fully manifest and reunite with their factions,” Diane answered. “We expected hollow vessels and acted accordingly. I apologize.”
“For shooting at us?” I asked.
“I realize that I’m sorry isn’t much, considering,” Diane said. “But it’s sincere. Given the fact that the two of you have managed rather shockingly to remain in control of your souls, I thought that we could dispense with the guns this time and simply talk.”
Leo hefted his gun. “I’m not putting this down.”
“I’d really prefer if you did,” Diane said. “I lack the… hmm, resilience granted by the entities within you. But if it makes you feel better…”
“It does,” Leo answered.
My heart pounded, but it wasn’t just Leo making it thump this time. We had spent days racing to San Diego for answers, but this Diane woman seemed to understand more than even Uriel had ever told me. She knew our names and that there was an angel inside me. How?
I am curious, too, Uriel admitted.
“What do you know about all of this?” I asked.
“I’d really rather discuss that someplace more secure,” Diane said. “We can all admit that your… unique spiritual guests… can be rather destructive. There are seventeen people dead so far, a crater that used to be a motel in Arrow, and we retrieved half a gallon of tainted blood from the back room of a bike garage in Jasper.”
“You found that shit?” I asked. “Does SPOT uh… know what to do with it?”
“Yes, we do,” Diane answered. “And we have disposed of the substance safely.”
That was good to hear and I wanted whatever answers Diane had, but that didn’t mean I trusted her one bit. Neither did Leo, apparently.
“We’re not going anywhere,” he said.
“In point of fact, you’re both heading to California,” Diane countered.
“How do you even know that?” I asked. “How did you find us? We don’t have cell phones anymore and we pay for everything in cash…”
Diane nodded. “And those were wise precautions. But Leopold — I’m sorry, Mister Valdis — discarded a gun during an altercation on Highway 44. It was collected by the police, but the Society has chapters in just about every nation, with members at every level of authority. We were able to intercept that particular piece of evidence.”
“I was pissed at Pestilence,” Leo said. “That fucker killed my friends. But there weren’t any serial numbers on that gun. It’s not registered to me.”
“No, but there were several fingerprints on it,” Diane answered. “And your prints are in the system, which we have access to.”
Well, Leo was a criminal, so I guess that made sense. I really wished that we had thought of it at the time… But to be fair, I had been facing down a Death-possessed Leo.
“Then there was a suspicious break-in at a garage in Jasper,” Diane said with a smile. “Where a throttle kit sized for a Packmaster was taken, and cash left behind that could be traced back to an armored car robbery in Chicago.”
Leo sighed. “That’s exactly why we always take the money to San Diego first. Anything else?”
“Yes,” Diane said. “An email sent from a hotel in Flagstaff. It contained no names, but went out to a monitored address for the San Diego Knights of Hell.”
Leo turned to me. “I’m sorry, Jaz.”
“It’s alright,” I said. “Sounds like we were screwed no matter what. They had plenty of ways to find us.”
“We’ve been tracking you for our own purposes,” Diane told us. “The Society… SPOT… hasn’t reported you to governmental authorities. In fact, we’ve done the best we can to keep the police and state troopers clear of the situation wherever possible.”
“Wait, why would you help us?” I asked suspiciously.
“At the risk of further alienating you both, we weren’t actually trying to help you,” Diane said. “We were helping those first responders. The Society exists to protect this world and its inhabitants from… well, you.”
The strange woman stood and adjusted her glasses.
“There’s much more for us to discuss,” she said. “But there are innocent people here that none of us wish to see harmed. I hope I’ve proved that we have valuable information.”
“Yeah, I guess,” I answered slowly. “But can you really help us deal with the… things inside us?”
I do not require ‘dealing with,’ Uriel said stiffly. I require only control and victory.
Diane hesitated, but then she nodded. “Yes… We can help. Does that mean I’ve convinced you to come with me?”
I glanced at Leo. The biker rocked onto the balls of his feet, weighing the risks of what Diane was asking of us. Leo stopped moving and lifted his chin.
“We’ve already got answers and help waiting for us in San Diego,” he said.
Carlos. I wondered if Leo’s uncle had something to do with SPOT. A former west coast member, maybe? If Diane’s people were listening to our phones and Carlos realized that, it might explain why he didn’t want to talk to us over an unsecured line or whatever. I didn’t know much about Carlos… Could a toughened old biker belong to the same group as this preacher-slash-scientist lady?
Diane sighed again and looked over her glasses at us.
“Well, we do have snipers surrounding this hotel,” she said. “I would rather talk this out with you. Believe it or not, we’re all on the same side. But this is far too important to leave to chance. If you’ll forgive the cliché, you’re coming with me, one way or the other.”
“So much for the good-cop routine,” I muttered.
“I’m sorry,” Diane answered. “Truly, I am. But the fate of all creation hangs in the balance.”
I groaned. She sounded just like Uriel.
This mortal has no part in our battle, Uriel said. Do not let her divert us from our goal.
Your goal, I corrected. Not mine. I only wanted to get away from Crayhill and see the world.
Leo’s eyes narrowed and he took a step toward Diane, raising his gun a few degrees.
“If your people start shooting, you won’t survive very long,” Leo said.
I wasn’t certain if he was talking about the SPOT snipers catching Diane in the crossfire, or saying that Leo would shoot her himself.
“I’m not excited about the prospect, but my people have their orders,” Diane said. “With any luck, maybe it will help convince you how seriously I take this matter. But other innocents might be injured. Your celestial natures call for terribly large caliber weapons, I’m afraid.”
That didn’t really leave us very many choices. I was reasonably sure that Uriel could protect me from whatever toys SPOT had brought to this particular party, but whenever I used the archangel’s power, their hold got a little tighter.
And that went double for Leo, too. Compared to Death, Uriel was friendly and reasonable. Leo was already fighting Death every moment for control and we didn’t dare give the horseman any opening to seize the reins.
“Alright, fine,” I sighed. “We’ll go to wherever it is you want to talk. Just give us an address and we’ll meet you there.”
“That’s not a good idea,” Diane answered. “I’m afraid I can’t trust you to make the trip. But we can give you a ride. All of you.”
She inclined her head toward Leo, then at the window and presumably the Packmaster outside. I tried to figure out some way to negotiate the point, but the roar of an engine thundered across the parking lot and rattled the windows. Diane flinched a little and Leo snapped his gun up.
“What the hell are you doing?” he snarled.
I ran over to the window and braced myself, hoping that the SPOT snipers weren’t too jumpy. No rifle bullets came punching through the glass — yet — but I recognized three of the same big black panel vans that had cornered us in Zamora Canyon down in the parking lot below.
A dozen people in dark paramilitary garb — including bulletproof vests and reinforced belts all hung with weapons — were trying to wrestle Leo’s motorcycle onto a trailer. The Packmaster revved furiously and one of the SPOT guys jumped away with a shout. Blood spurted from his hand and the others fell back, grabbing their guns.
“Shit,” Leo growled.
He ran out through the door and down the hall, toward the stairs. Diane and I glanced at each other, then took off after Leo. I was younger and my legs were longer, so I got to the stairwell first — just in time to see Leo leap the final steps and kick open the door at the bottom.
I chased him out into the hotel parking lot as Leo leveled his gun at the Spotters or whatever the hell they were called.
“You! Back the fuck off!” Leo shouted. “Don’t touch my bike!”
One of the Spotters rushed their injured friend away from the demonic Packmaster and toward the vans, but the others jumped back behind their trailer and grabbed weapons. There were already red dots wavering all over Leo as SPOT snipers acquired their target from the nearby rooftops. When I glanced down, I found several more of the crimson laser sights centered right over my heart.
You are not dying tonight, Uriel said. Not before the final battle and not by mortal weapons!
I felt the angel’s light swelling within me and clenched my fists desperately tight as they began to glow. No, not now…!
Diane ran out through the back door of the hotel, holding her hands up in the air.
“Wait!” she shouted. “Stand down!”
The little red dots vanished from my chest and the Spotters on the ground still held guns, but with muzzles pointed down at the asphalt. Uriel grumbled inside me as Diane turned toward Leo.
“Please,” she said. “People are watching. You don’t want any of them hurt and neither do we. Put the gun away.”
Leo glanced around the parking lot. There were a few faces peeking out from between the drapes of their hotel rooms and one man had stopped in the back door of the Chinese restaurant, staring wide-eyed at the scene unfolding outside.
“I only want to talk,” Diane said. “And to take you and your steed somewhere safe while we do it.”
“Jaz?” Leo asked. “What do you think?”
Why the hell was he asking me? Leo was the bona fide badass, not me. But I shook my head.
“I don’t think we can really refuse,” I said. “Sounds like they need to talk to us, and we need to talk to them.”
Leo replaced the safety on his handgun and slipped it into the back of his jeans.
“Fine,” he said. “Let’s go talk.”
Diane let out a breath that sounded like relief. “I hope that you’ll understand when I ask you to ride with me, rather than the steed. It will be right behind us, I promise, but we’re on a bit of a timetable here.”
Leo and I nodded, but the Packmaster revved again and the rear tire spun up, screaming against the blacktop.
“Can you convince your steed to come along quietly?” Diane shouted over the noise.
“Not really,” Leo said.
But he dutifully hurried over to the motorcycle and grabbed the handlebars. The tires stopped spinning, though the engine continued to growl ominously. The Spotters in the parking lot straightened and approached the Packmaster warily. Leo looked at them and every one of the SPOT soldiers froze, watching him.
“You really don’t want to load it up without my help,” Leo said. “Trust me.”
The Spotters all glanced toward the unmarked black van where one of their own was hopefully receiving medical attention. Slowly, they crept closer to the motorcycle and Leo helped them roll the bike into the waiting trailer. It growled, but Leo held onto the handlebars and the Packmaster let itself be strapped down.
“I’ll see you again soon,” Leo promised. He patted his bike and glared around at the Spotters. “And there had better not be a single scratch when I do.”
“I’m not sure we even have the ability to scratch his steed,” Diane murmured.
I gave her a sidelong glance. “I doubt you want to try, though. That guy they hauled away could have lost a hand. You realize that Leo is linked to his motorcycle, right? He’ll know if you steal that thing.”
Diane nodded. “Yes, I understand. We don’t tangle lightly with the celestial forces.”
“The who?” I asked
“The timeless entities within you and Mister Valdis,” Diane answered. “The archangels and the horsemen, as I believe you call them.”
The man behind the Chinese restaurant had called out his manager, who was now speaking animatedly into a cell phone. More curtains were being yanked open, and there had to be at least sixty pairs of eyes on us as Leo jogged back over.
“We had better get moving,” Diane said. “If you would please follow me…”
I half wondered if Diane was going to offer us candy to get into one of the windowless vans. But the SPOT director pulled out her own phone — it was starting to feel like everyone had a working cell phone except us — and said something into it that I couldn’t hear. A moment later, the loud thump of rotors filled the air and a black helicopter flew over the hotel. It descended, making a warm, dusty wind race across the parking lot, and landed on the still-hot asphalt.
All of the watching eyes went wide and tourists stared with mouths hanging open. Diane pointed and then led us to the waiting helicopter. I’m pretty sure she smirked and waved to our audience as she climbed in. Leo jumped into the helicopter, then held out his hand to me.
I took it and let him heave me up. My legs were feeling like overcooked pasta and I appreciated the help. I dropped into one of the seats across from Diane and began trying to figure out the safety harness. A pair of SPOT soldiers slid in on either side of the director and another closed the door from the outside.
As soon as we were sealed up inside, the helicopter took off. My stomach lurched and I grabbed Leo’s thigh. He stared down at my hand for a moment, then put his own on top and squeezed gently.
